Markus: That’s excellent. So along the way I talk to a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs and there’s always something or someone who inspires them along the way. Can you think of anyone or anything that actually inspired you, that helped you get to where you are today?
Don: My grandfather. He was actually in the trades years ago; when I was a kid I used to go on jobs with him. And it was always about working with my hands and it was always about being busy and a hands-on type of experience. And I remember that as a kid; he was always happy you know when he puts on the tools — he was an old school guy. He put down the tools and he’d go fish and forget about it and he just seemed like a happy guy. I feel I see a lot of folks need to go to work or they go to their jobs or their businesses in these environments that run them into the ground. I saw that he was always a happy-go-lucky guy. And so I’m also a hands-on guy and that’s what kind of inspired me to get into the field.
Markus: That’s amazing. You know it’s funny you say that because my grandfather was a big inspiration for me as well and you know it sounds like your grandfather really lived the motto “life is meant to be lived,” and he worked hard and he played hard and he enjoyed it with joy, every moment of it. It wasn’t like people that you know they work for Friday, because they just can’t stand what they’re doing. He loved what he did and when he was done, he went out and lived life. And you’ve kind of taken that same philosophy as well; that’s very cool.
Don: Right. So the biggest part of our business that I really enjoy is we have really good people that work for us and we have really, really good clients that work with us. And it seems like there’s never problems and, if there is any type of situation, it’s just one resolution away from being rectified. So there’s never any finger pointing.
There’s never any problems that go on and create any uncomfortable situations between our administrative staff and our workers or our clients. If a problem may or may not arise, we have it rectified, almost immediately. So it seems like everybody stays really happy. As a matter of fact, there were a couple of the guys that work for me, today, and they loved working for me and the reason why is because our clients were so nice, because the projects were really well spelled out and they knew exactly what they were going to need and what they were going to be doing.
And it was just a real smooth experience, for not only our clients, but our workers and the more we can keep everybody happy and enjoying what they do, the better the jobs are that the guy’s actually complete. So yeah, I really do like the fact that everybody seems to be happy and nobody’s finger pointing and nothing’s really a problem. So I do enjoy being in this business and hope to be for a long time and hopefully I can carry this this business into a second generation, I can hand it off to my family.
Markus: Absolutely. I think I see a book title coming there, “Happy Leader, Happy Workers, Happy Clients.” Yeah. You tell your story. I love it. I love it. That’s great passions. I appreciate that so. So you and I know you shared a lot of this already. So what really drives you and gives your passion to get out of bed in the morning and help the people that you’re helping, helping the clients that you’re helping?
Don: Well typically, a lot of our new clients would find us through happy clients and they’re seeing the wonderful things that they say about us and our company. And you know you have these people and they’re happy with how they’ve been treated and how projects have met their time frames, or how they turned out. So again, it goes back to the people appreciate it. I guess your life’s pretty simple if you look at it. It’s really about the appreciation; if you appreciate the people that work for you, they appreciate you. Appreciate your clients; they appreciate you; and they just kind of go with the energy and then I see the appreciation back from the clients, as far as when they make comments or remarks whether it be online or e-mails or phone calls or whatever. That’s really what drives me, because it’s not necessarily about the payment. It’s about people being happy and their needs were met and they can move on with their life. It’s not something that’s going to be a struggle. It’s going to be easy. I always tell people, “Don’t sweat the decorating. That should be fun. OK.” Whether you’re remodeling or painting, it should be fun. Don’t stress it out. If you have a problem with colors, come to us we’ll help you or we can give you advice or we’ll send you somewhere, so we can get it right. But don’t make it a stressful thing, because it should be fine. I guess that pretty much sums it up.
Markus: That’s great passion and obviously your clients appreciate that and you helping them and that passion that you bring to the table. So what would you say, you said people sweat the small stuff, what would you say is one of the biggest problems you see clients having when they’re trying to get their home or their business painted.
